Effects of sound level on fMRI activation in human brainstem, thalamic and cortical centers

The dependence of fMRI activation on sound level was examined throughout the auditory pathway of normal human listeners using continuous broadband noise, a stimulus widely used in neuroscientific investigations of auditory processing, but largely neglected in neuro-imaging. Several specialized techniques were combined here for the first time to enhance detection of brainstem activation, mitigate scanner noise, and recover temporal resolution lost by the mitigation technique. The main finding was increased activation with increasing level in cochlear nucleus, superior olive, inferior colliculus, medial geniculate body and auditory cortical areas. We suggest that these increases reflect monotonically increasing activity in a preponderance of individual auditory neurons responsive to broadband noise. While the time-course of activation changed with level, the change was subtle and only significant in a part of the cortex. To our knowledge, these are the first fMRI data showing the effects of sound level in subcortical centers or for a non-tonal, non-speech stimulus at any stage of the pathway. The present results add to the body of parametric data in normal human listeners and are fundamental to the design of any fMRI experiment employing continuous noise.